If you’re like many Australian’s, you might be planning your 2018 New Year’s resolutions and if you’re planning on setting some goals, here are a few tips to ensure your resolutions aren’t on the backburner by Easter.

There’s a reason so many people fail to stick to their resolutions when they set goals like ‘save more money’, ‘lose weight’ or ‘spend more time with family’ as they don’t provide any firm end goal, which makes it easier to give them up.

If we get better at setting resolutions we have a better chance of keeping them, so you’ll need to make sure your resolutions aren’t too vague, unrealistic or unmemorable.

Ensure your resolutions include specifics and smaller stepping stones to achieving those goals – and most importantly – make sure you write your goals down or tell someone else about them to keep yourself accountable! Maybe in 2018 you can resolve to:

Look after my health and wellbeing

Losing weight is one of the most popular resolutions made on December 31, but why not focus more on health and wellbeing? Rather than aiming to lose five kilos, pledge to go for a walk every day, integrate a new type of healthy and tasty food into your diet or try a wellness based activity like tai chi, meditation or pilates. A healthy body is a healthy mind, so committing to making small changes to positively affect your physical health is going to do wonders for your emotional wellbeing also. It’s never too late to improve your health, so start in 2018 and your body will be thanking you for years to come.

Develop a passion

Whether it’s unearthing an old passion or discovering a new one, find an activity that brings you joy and put more time into it. Did you love drawing when you were younger? Have you always secretly wanted to learn guitar? Be it photography, hiking or salsa dancing, sign up for a class or put aside an hour every week to spend time doing what makes you happy. Even better, get your partner, neighbours or friends involved. Sharing your joy with others will benefit all of you.

Improve my financial situation

While resolving to win the lotto and move to France might be wishful thinking, there are real steps you can take to improve your finances or reach a goal like a much-wanted holiday. Like all things financial, education is key. Do your research – borrow topical books from the library, read personal finance magazines and sign up to receive e-newsletters from reputable websites. For the smaller luxuries in life, don’t feel bad at all about indulging yourself after a lifetime of looking after others! To help with saving, consider the total amount you might need and break that up into weekly or monthly payments. For example, setting aside $30 a week will yield more than $1,500 by the year’s end, or even more if you deposit into a high-interest savings account!

Of course, it’s easier to keep a resolution that focuses on YOUR enjoyment too and why not – that’s what life should be all about!